What had been a blast for the Detroit Tigers and their fans alike in early May has turned into a grind of monumental proportions, with each and every one of the 13 losses in the last 17 games — including Thursday’s sweep-clinching 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays — seeming more and more frustratingly unwatchable, and far, far less fun for everyone involved.

When the manager starts his postgame comments with: “Yeah, we’re not really doing anything very well ...” you know there are problems.

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And that’s certainly reflected by the carriage of a team that was once running away with the division, only to see its lead shrink down to 2 1/2 games.

“I think the thing that happens most when teams are struggling is that players forget it’s a game. When something bad happens on the field, the energy tends to get sucked out of the players in the dugout, or on the field. They forget that it’s just a game, and although they’re supposed to do their jobs, it is just a game, and you really should have fun doing it,” said manager Brad Ausmus, pointing at Miguel Cabrera as one guy who continues to have fun while he goes about doing his job.

“When you’re struggling, it becomes a job, and you forget it’s a game. ... Once the game starts, you have to take a little bit of the job out of it, because that’s when you do start pressing.”

Players press, and dig themselves deeper.

And every little thing becomes magnified in significance.

One little thing could spark a turnaround.

“I think it’s just gonna take one big hit. One big game to get us back rolling. Not even back-to-back wins. I guarantee you if we were down 6-3 in the ninth and we rallied back or someone hit a walk-off homer, it’d work,” Nick Castellanos said. “It’d light that fuze.”

Or that little thing could just help dig the hole deeper.

There was one of those moments in Thursday’s game, when a pop fly landed between center fielder Austin Jackson and right fielder Torii Hunter.

“Austin thought Torii had it, and Torii had lost it, didn’t see it off the bat. That’s all it was. Not great timing, but ... it happens,” Ausmus said. “That ball drops, changes the whole inning.”

Starter Justin Verlander (6-5) gave up three runs in the inning to surrender the lead and, despite saying he felt like he’d turned a corner, and everyone saying that he had outstanding stuff Thursday, later gave up back-to-back homers, allowing the Blue Jays to stretch the lead out.

Wracking his brain to find ways to lighten the mood, as he did in spring training — “It’s crossed my mind. I’ve tried to come up with some things, just ideas,” he said — Ausmus has maintained that the Tigers are the team they were to start the season, not the one of the last two weeks.

And he’s said he can’t let the team believe that, either.

“Well, yeah. We need to snap out of it. I think the players, if you ask them, will tell you this is a good team. You can take a lay baseball fan, show them the roster, and they’ll tell you it’s a good team,” Ausmus said. “But I think the frustration can carry over until something snaps it. Until something happens to help them relax, or something happens to help them win a game. Then they can relax. It’s the chicken or the egg. Does something happen on the field first? Or do you do something to make something happen on the field?”